Yale’s first hackathon, Y-Hack, debuts Friday

NEW HAVEN >> Kevin Tan and 1,000 of his hack-happy pals are going deep into code mode this weekend.

They’ve organized a high-octane — and highly caffeinated — computer coding competition called Y-Hack, which will award $20,000 in cash, gadget giveaways and job interviews with the likes of Google and Intel.

The frenetic fun starts Friday evening at Yale’s West Campus and won’t stop for 24 hours. Winners will be announced Saturday evening at a ceremony at the Yale Commons.

Advertisement

“You have your computer in front of you and you develop and sell an original project,” Tan said. “The code has to be from scratch. If you’re really into a program and you’re trying to fix it, 24 hours isn’t bad.”

Y-Hack debuts at a time when code writers and computer engineers have become vitally important to the local economy. Just last week, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. pointed out the need for code writers to help the city retain successful start-up ventures such as Track180, an app that measures social impact. Another local start-up, Panorama Education, recently noted that it moved part of its operation to Massachusetts in order to be closer to more code writers.

“This is an ongoing movement,” said Tan, a sophomore majoring in physics. “We see Y-Hack as an expression of the tech community here. There are lots of people with amazing talent here, and this is a way for Yale kids to use their intellectual skills and energy to create things. It’s a big step forward for entrepreneurship.”

But it’s not just Yale students participating in Y-Hack. At least 800 of the 1,000 participants will come from across the United States and Canada. Schools sending delegations include Stanford University, University of Southern California, Harvard and MIT.

“We’ve chartered nine buses to bring people here,” Tan said. “We have people coming from Philadelphia, Chicago and Michigan. We have a bus coming from Toronto. There have been a few other hackathons around the country, but this one already has so much positive reception.”

Y-Hack also dovetails nicely with some of the stated goals of new Yale President Peter Salovey, who wants to expand campus entrepreneurship and entice Yale start-ups to bring jobs to New Haven. Tan said he and others from Y-Hack have met with Salovey in preparing for their event.

Here’s how Y-Hack will work. Teams of four people will set up in cubicle areas of a building on the Yale West campus in Orange. As the night progresses, there will be raffles for prizes such as Google tablets and smart watches, informational talks by tech professionals, a DJ playing music and lots of Red Bull, which is one of the corporate sponsors.

Other major sponsors include Google, Facebook and Qualcomm.

On Saturday afternoon, everyone will pick up and move the party to Yale Commons in New Haven, where Y-Hack essentially will become a big science fair. Teams will have developed presentations of their ideas, which will be reviewed by a panel of judges.

First prize in the competition will be $10,000 — not that cash is the main focus, according to Tan.

“It’s not about the product that will make the most money,” he said. “It’s about the most dazzling program.”

Call Jim Shelton at 203-789-5664. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register at AskTheRegister.com.